Avri Ohana was born in Casablanca, Morocco and immigrated to Israel at the age of 13. Raised and educated in a kibbutz, he absorbed the magic of the land and the lessons of the artists who lived there:  the prominent European Dadaist Marcel Janco; Dan Hoffner, the director of Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem; the painter Eric Brauer of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism; and the acclaimed optical and kinetic artist Yaakov Agam in Paris. 

As a young man, Ohana was an early member of Ein Hod, located at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was there that he developed his unique voice as an artist. Since then, he has also traveled and worked extensively in Europe, Latin America and the United States, where he is now a citizen.

Ohana’s work reveals a restless temperament that is both in love with nature but also in relentless pursuit of perfect abstraaction. His canvaes are densely constructed atmospheric fields in which competing geometrical planes are balanced through use of color, rhythm and form. Writing in Artforum, Louis Nesbitt referred to Ohana’s ability to create “subtle atmospheres of shimmering light,” and it is indeed the case that a unique quality of light emanates from and enlivens his work. Using acrylic, house paint and fabric in conjunction with an oil paint matrix, Ohana creates painterly planes through which small glimpses of nature and architectural elements emerge ; they are all held together by an exquisite sense of spatial tension.

Ohana's exhibitions include solo and group shows in Israel, Europe and the United States. He has also created set designs for the Haifa Theater in Israel and the Grand Opera in San Francisco, and graphic designs for ABC Television in Hollywood. Presently, Avri Ohana lives and works in New York City.